Hot spots
Lynda Gratton / FT Prentice Hall
Hot Spot is an extremely interesting book definitely worth having in your library. The author is trying to answer a challenging question: “why some companies buzz with energy and innovation - and others don’t”.
This is the fact: some companies really buzz with energy and innovation. The result of such energy and innovation is a series of blockbuster products that conquer entire markets, seem to be exactly what the user were waiting for, deliver against and beyond the expectations. This translates into the company gaining market share, fattier margins and returns for the shareholders, and an increased ability to define the market or industry it operates into. They end up establishing a position of leadership which become increasingly difficult to challenge. You name it: iPod, Nokia phones, Google Search and many others.
Company that do not buzz with such energy are not necessarily bad companies. In many cases they are well run and successful ones, but they lack that aura of “can do no wrong”, that excitement around their products, and the recognition as market leaders and trend setters.
Trying to such question is actually extremely complicated and I am not even sure a definitive answer could be found. But the author, quite courageously, decides to give it a try with extremely interesting results.
Lynda decides to focus on the human resources of a company as a critical success factor. Doing fairly extensive analysis of leading companies like BP, Nokia or Ogilvy (and quite a few others) she comes to the conclusion that necessary (but not always sufficient) factors to ignite Hot Spots are:
1- A cooperative mindset
2- Boundary spanning
3- Igniting Purpose
The effectiveness of these three factors is then reinforced (or nullified) by the productive capacity of a company, or a team.
Lynda touches many interesting points and refers to real cases in real world. She tries to analyse the matter in an as methodical way as possible, but also to provide tools and methods that can help in identifying where Hot Spots might be hiding in our company, how to strengthen and leverage them, or how to put in place such conditions that will help them develop.
Definitely a book worth reading, if not studying, with lots of interesting discussion points and take-aways that in many cases find instant application in our daily jobs.
http://www.hotspotsmovement.com/
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